Australian soldiers pulling out of Solomon Islands after decade long peacekeeping mission

PETER LLOYD: After a decade long peacekeeping mission, Australian soldiers are pulling out of the Solomon Islands.

Troops were first deployed there in 2003 as part of a regional effort to stop ethnic militia groups tearing the nation apart.

A hundred federal police will stay on, to train and support local officers.

Jane Norman reports.

JANE NORMAN: Ten years after they first arrived there, Australian troops are getting ready to leave the Solomon Islands.

The Defence Minister Stephen Smith says from a military perspective, it's mission accomplished.

STEPHEN SMITH: We completed and concluded the defence or military aspect of our contribution to the Solomon Islands at the end of June, in the last couple of days, and will now engage in the extraction process.

JANE NORMAN: It's now a very different place.

(Extract from ABC news archives)

PETER WILSON: ABC national news with Peter Wilson. The flight operations centre at Honiara airport says that rebels raided a police armoury and now control the streets.

Ethnic violence had claimed the lives of more than 100 people and forced 20,000 to flee their homes.

The government sent an urgent plea for help and Australia, along with its pacific neighbours, responded.

Diplomat Nick Warner led the intervention and spoke to journalists as he arrived in Honiara.

REPORTER: Someone said to me yesterday this is the last chance for the Solomons. Do you view it that way?

NICK WARNER: I think it probably is the last chance, I think the decline in the economy, in the delivery of services has been so severe over last few years and the size of this intervention is so large and so expensive, it's very hard to see it could be repeated. But if itís the last chance, it's a chance that's actually going to work.

JANE NORMAN: Lieutenant General Ash Power is the Chief of Joint Operations currently in the Solomons. He thinks it has worked.

ASH POWER: Their own security apparatus internally can look after their own circumstances and I'm very comfortable we're at that phase now in the Solomon Islands. There's more work to be done with their police force but certainly you don't feel under threat or at risk at all when you're walking through those streets.

JANE NORMAN: Ash Power has been deployed to the Solomon Islands several times in different roles and has seen its transformation first-hand.

The Army's primary mission was restoring law and order and removing thousands of illegal weapons from the streets.

ASH POWER: Certainly you don't see on a day to day basis, or we haven't seen for a long while now, weapons being openly carried around the place. Certainly not in Honiara, which is where we've been predominantly for the past few years.

Really from those security perspectives, the reports I've seen provided to me from my people and what we get from the police is that there's nothing obvious.

JANE NORMAN: While the security situation remains calm, many locals fear a return to the violence once the troops leave.

ASH POWER: We're very conscious of that and the visible presence does have an impact on peoples thoughts I am sure.

So we have advertised the fact that the military component of RAMSI is going to be withdrawn for a long while now so it doesn't come as a shock to make sure we don't create a vacuum. We've also had the guys over time doing less and less, so they're becoming less visible on a day to day basis.

JANE NORMAN: The military contingent is just one part of the so-called RAMSI mission.

The Defence Minister Stephen Smith says the Australian Federal Police will remain in the Solomons until the local police force is ready to be armed once again and resume frontline roles.

STEPHEN SMITH: And the AFP will have some 100, 110 Australian Federal Police officers continuing to assist the Solomon Islands Government and the Royal Solomon Islands Police.

JANE NORMAN: Ash Power and the remaining army reservists will return to Australia by September.